E-mail, Feeds, 'n' Stuff

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Are Disney robots coming to Marine Drive?

When Solyndra took its hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies to build a solar panel factory in California, it built a high-tech Taj Mahal, which is now useless because the Chinese have killed Solyndra in the marketplace.

Now that SoloPower has hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies to build solar panel factories in Portland and elsewhere, what kind of plant is it planning to create?

After they get done with their lavish golf excursion to celebrate the "deal" they'll get busy lining their pockets while creating the impression of skin in the game and insulating themselves from any personal liability.

The Chinese did not kill that company. The management did. They pissed away millions building a palace and lost focus on their idea, which the market passed over quickly. Happens in new technologies all the time. Maybe if they just stuck to engineering, rented cheap space, bought used FF&E, and worked 80 hours a week on making their product more practical, they would have done OK.

"The management did. They pissed away millions building a palace and lost focus on their idea"

Getting a truckload of free money doesn't exactly help to hone your focus on actually making money.

Again, these are not bad ideas, but they need to invest further upstream like in getting more tech trained employees. Then if they want to spend $150M to build Intel part of a fab, it might have some more success.

Right now, the types passing out money are looking for headlines with green in the title, not a sustainable idea. UNfortunately they don't have a clue on how to tell the diff between a scam and a na actual good idea.

Oh, wow, how deep the lies tangle cobwebs to cover up the first lie, until thought and brain entire is suffocated. ... talking to News'GlennBeck'101FM, here ... if the cobweb fits, be snared in it.

There is a book to read (Web of Debt) which explains money should be backed by the full faith and credit of the community/society, which prints the money into circulation to pay for social developments, (e.g., education, justice, infrastructure, general welfare, civility, social benefit) which inures to all who live in it, and of it, and circulate the money. (As opposed to backing money with gold ... or other finite 'precious' matter.)

It's a simple idea but a blog comment can't possible do summary sense for a whole book. Read the book and you'll likely 'get it.'

So, today here's an example of the idea in real-life practical terms. With a government loan Solyndra woulda been a public improvement, the public would have been a sort of stakeholder; (money for societal developments, and society's profit ....)

Most observers claim it was the fall in silicon prices that made the company's business model unsustainable. According to the New York Times ....

However, no one really knows if this is true or not.
What was the sales price of Solyndra's panels?
What did their order book look like?
How many long-term supply contracts were signed ...?

Who benefits from a Solyndra bankruptcy?

We know who does not benefit – the employees who were laid off ... the vendors who provided materials ... the lenders who provided financing .... And the taxpayers definitely don't benefit.

So why then would Solyndra seek bankruptcy protection against its creditors?

Well here's an explanation no one has offered until now: Solyndra's owners declared bankruptcy not because the company was no longer viable, but for exactly the opposite reason – the company's prospects are so good, they want it all for themselves.

By declaring bankruptcy, the company clears its books of all debts. The company's assets are auctioned off with the proceeds assigned to the benefit of creditors. The owners buy the assets in the auction for pennies on the dollar, free and clear of all debts, courtesy of the US taxpayers, as represented by the Obama Administration's Department of Energy.

Great investment management -- if you can get away with it.

Of course there is only one way to know if this hypothesis is plausible, and that is to take note of who shows up to buy Solyndra's assets in the auction. If the buyers are even remotely connected to the current investors in the company, then the Solyndra bankruptcy will go down as one of the greatest heists of taxpayer funds this century.

The date for the bankruptcy auction of Solyndra's assets has been set for October 27th.
...

COMMENT Section for the article has this:K. L. (Lafayette)
On Solyndra, having seen this happen, there will be another corporate or LLC entity from another state, that has been sitting around and already has 2 people - Directors and a shareholder or two. This will be purchased in exchange for stock in yet a third entity to be transacted subsequent to the auction. The NewCo will bid on the assets, perhaps even getting an inside track with regulators where they get the deal done before the auction, barring anyone else bidding against them... seen it happen, reviewed extensive corporate documents where it did happen. Just saying.

Another investigative report (omitted here) lists the Israeli owners and backers of Solyndra ... so far. [Solyndra's main marketer of its products in Israel is Israsol, a solar and wind power firm headquartered in Jerusalem; U.S. headquarters in Dana Point, California; and U.S. operating center in Brentwood, Tennessee.]

So what's the motive of the rightwing para-nazis (News'GlennBeck'101FM) excessively propagandizing baseless statements (i.e., lies) about the Solyndra financial tour de force. (Not a question, no question mark.)

I'll take anything Disney over anything cooked up at Portland City Hall.

What other organization managed to create a master planned environment where cars are all but prohibited; where a train that goes around in endless circles is enormously popular with riders; where streetcars are truly zero emission (well, except for horse poop); where monorails glide through the skies; and where everyone walks to where they are going?

Oh, and there is an iconic bridge right smack in the center of it all, just north of the statue that pays homage to the man that created it all, and a little sidekick named Mickey.

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 5
At this date last year: 3
Total run in 2017: 113
In 2016: 155
In 2015: 271
In 2014: 401
In 2013: 257
In 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269